JAPAN HIGHER EDUCATION OUTLOOK
Featuring news, information, analysis and commentary on higher education in Japan.



New issue (#4) of 'ELT in Japan' (Oct 9)
ELT in Japan started here at Japan Higher Education Outlook as special features about teaching EFL in Japan. It is now a sister blog and online publication. The latest issue is here:

http://eltinjapan.blogspot.com/2011/10/elt-in-japan-issue-4-october-2011.html

It is also viewable as a public google document and can be downloaded as a PDF from this location:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B8LogtWAF3y8NGIwNGNjNjQtOGM0Zi00ZTNmLWIxZjgtZTk3MzJjYTQzNmYz&hl=en_GB


Accreditation of HE in Japan: English-language resources and links (Aug 26)
I researched the English-language pages of the accrediting organizations' websites. Japanese language content tends to be more extensive and updated more frequently, but I'm assuming readers of JPN HEO blog prefer English-language resources. There are four general accrediting bodies overseeing institutions undergoing accreditation. All institutions were required to do this within 7 years from 2004 until 2011. I have also included information about  the Japan Accreditation Board for Engineering Education (JABEE) and its overseas network because of the impact this sort of specialty accreditation is having on science and technology departments in Japan.

I. National Institution for Academic Degrees and University Evaluation (NIAD-UE) 

Types of Evaluation Systems

Certified Evaluation and Accreditation 

National University Corporation Evaluation

Information Package

Glossary of Quality Assurance in Japanese Higher Education

Overview of Quality Assurance System in Higher Education

I...


University accreditation in Japan: Problems and possibilities for reforming EFL education (Aug 26)
This article by Bern Mulvey updates the situation on accreditation in Japan's HE system. What is needed now, perhaps, is more analysis as to what the accreditation actually does and how to improve it so that it can lead to improvement in HE here.  


Once you are at the page you will see an abstract in English and Japanese. Below that 'click' or 'right click' the link and download the PDF. You will need a program like Adobe Acrobat Reader to read the PDF.  

http://jalt-publications.org/tlt/articles/153-feature-article-university-accreditation-japan-problems-and-possibilities-reforming

University accreditation in Japan: Problems and possibilities for reforming EFL education
by Prof. Bern Mulvey, Iwate University


Reply to Taikibansei on the reply to "FACTOID #2: Are universities and colleges in Japan accredited? " (Aug 26)
Note: the original discussion (now also posted at this blog) is at the url  http://www.debito.org/?p=5503 . True to form, David Aldwinkle refuses to publish my rebuttal of Taikibansei's response to a JPN HEO article on accreditation in Japan. So it is being published here. You are a classy guy David, but so selective in your sense of fairness.

Response to Taikibansei:

1. Thank you for the attempt at corrections and clarifications. I have to point out however that this article was written in 2006 and wasn't published until early 2008. One reason why I created the blog was to get this material out there for people to read and comment on. I'm sorry it took you until 2010 to find it, only after I cross-posted it to Debito.org's site.

2. Next, you commented (your comments in italics):  

Actually, the “pilot” period (including especially the jiko hyouka and evaluations by JUAA) started and finished before 2004. From 2004, everything has been “official.”

Actually I think accr...


Reply from Taikibansei on "FACTOID #2: Are universities and colleges in Japan accredited?" (Aug 26)
Regarding a previously published article on accreditation of Japanese HE institutions here at JPN HEO Blog, one Taikibansei wrote a reply that appeared elsewhere on the web.  I post it here and will then reply to these observations from Taikibansei. .

http://www.debito.org/?p=5503
http://www.debito.org/?p=5503#comment-190754
http://www.debito.org/?p=5503#comment-190810



Taikibansei Says:


An interesting post there, Mr. Jannuzi. I have a question for you at the end, but first some corrections:

Actually, JIHEE evaluates only private universities, and JACA evaluates chiefly tandais and senmon gakkous. Moreover, while the other two agencies (especially NIAD-UE) may seem to concentrate on national/public universities, they also provide accreditation evaluations for private universities as well. E.g., Ritsumeikan, a private university, received its accreditation evaluation from JUAA in 2004 (i.e., the first year possible), with the results announced in early 2005.

“Still, until t...


Supercomputer "K computer" Takes First Place in World (Jul 21)
Official release from RIKEN.

http://www.riken.jp/engn/r-world/info/release/press/2011/110620/index.html

Supercomputer "K computer" Takes First Place in World
Achieves world's best performance of 8.162 petaflops to lead TOP500 list


June 20, 2011
RIKEN
Fujitsu Limited

Tokyo, June 20, 2011 - RIKEN and Fujitsu have taken first place on the 37th TOP500 list announced today at the 26th International Supercomputing Conference (ISC'11) held in Hamburg, Germany. This ranking is based on a performance measurement of the "K computer,"(*1) currently under their joint development.

The TOP500-ranked K computer system, currently in the configuration stage, has 672 computer racks equipped with a current total of 68,544 CPUs. This half-built system achieved the world's best LINPACK benchmark performance of 8.162 petaflops (quadrillion floating-point operations per second), to place it at the head of the TOP500 list. In addition, the system has recorded high standards with a computing efficienc...


Nuclear industry was a major player at universities and research institutions in Japan (Jul 21)
But now the question is: If Japan is going to phase out nuclear power, what happens to its huge presence at its universities? The nuclear industry was a major source of funds for taught programs and research (even though much of that ultimately came from government subsidies and support to the industry).

I somehow think majors like 'nuclear safety engineer' are not going to have much appeal to young people.

http://www.iaea.org/inisnkm/nkm/ws/research_institutes/japan.html

Nuclear Research in Japan

This list of names of university institutes and research institutes has been compiled from the INIS Bibliographic Database. It is not intended to be complete, but indicates some of the main institutes that are actively publishing in the nuclear field.

Please consult the Nuclear Energy Handbook for more information about Japan.
Universities

    * Kyushu Univ., Fukuoka (Japan). Dept. of Physics
    * Osaka City Univ. (Japan). Dept. of Physics
    * Kumamoto Univ. (Japan). Faculty of S...


Japan's Big Science Takes Big Hit from Big Disasters (Jul 21)
http://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2011-03-21/japanese_science_takes_big_hit_from_earthquake.html

March 21, 2011
Japanese Science Takes Big Hit from Earthquake

excerpt (entire article at link above). 

One of the most affected centers is Tohoku University, which was near the epicenter of the quake in Sendai. The institution was one of Japan's preeminent materials science, engineering and biomedicine centers, but will be shut down until at least the end of April, according to a report from Nature News. Tohoku University is home to the Cyberscience Center, which houses a 31.2 teraflop system, but as of now, there are no updates about the status of the resource. As it stands, the university area is difficult to access due to dangerous aftershocks, and recovery efforts are being hindered by a lack of electricity and water.


Japan HE dominates QS's 'Asian Ranking' of Universities (Jul 21)
Japanese universities dominate the entire Asian set, but only one Japanese university makes it into the top five--that is, University of Tokyo.

QS rankings are now independent of the THES rankings. This Asian rankings list makes for an interesting preview of the world rankings for 2011, which will come out later this year, in direct competition with THES's for our attention. One question that comes to mind is this: If University of Tokyo is number four in Asia, will it even make the top twenty of QS's world rankings?

http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings

http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/asian-university-rankings/2011

Top Five Universities in Asia

Ranking University

1          The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
2          University of Hong Kong
3          National University of Singapore (NUS)
4          The University of Tokyo
5          The Chinese University of Hong Kong


Japan tops supercomputer rankings (June 2011) (Jul 21)
A supercomputer in Japan hasn't been number 1 since late 2004. Japan had even dropped out of the top 10 list for much of those 7 years. However, a supercomputer that Fujitsu built for Riken (a group of government-funded research institutions) recently put Japan back at the very top. US dominance of petaflop-level computing continues. However, China shows growing strength at supercomputers. This is now an era of PETAFLOP computing, with all top ten computers attaining that level of calculating power.  

http://www.top500.org/lists/2011/06/press-release

excerpt (entire article at link above)

Japan Reclaims Top Ranking on Latest TOP500 List of World’s Supercomputers
Thu, 2011-06-16 19:24


HAMBURG, Germany. A Japanese supercomputer capable of performing more than 8 quadrillion calculations per second (petaflop/s) is the new number one system in the world, putting Japan back in the top spot for the first time since the Earth Simulator was dethroned in November 2004, according to the...


Directories, listings, rankings etc. for HE worldwide and HE in Japan (Jul 7)


Directories, listings, rankings etc. for HE worldwide and HE in Japan
4ICU.ORG's Top 200 Universities Worldwide Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University's Institute of HE Braintrack Directory of HE - Japan Listings Higher Ed.org's College and University Home Page Directory International Association of Universities IAU Online Databases International Education A-Z List of Country Directories Japan Education and School Directory (Japanese language) Japan Education Guide - Includes directories of universities, colleges, and other HE Japan Ministry of Education's Stats on HE Japan Technical College and Technical Institute Directory (Japanese only) Japan University and Junior College Directory (Japanese only) Japans Ministry of Education's Portal to Stats and Info. in English on HE JUMP New study opportunities at Japan's GLOBAL universities NewsonJapan.com's Japan HE Directory Official Japan Statistical Almanac (in English) Online...


TEFL FORUM: Teaching English /r/ and /l/ to EFL learners: a lexical approach (parts 1-3 final) (Jun 23)
http://eltinjapan.blogspot.com/2011/06/teaching-english-r-and-l-to-efl.html


Teaching English /r/ and /l/ to EFL learners: a lexical approach (parts 1-3 final)
Charles Jannuzi
University of Fukui, Japan

excerpt:

Introduction


English /r/, /l/ and contrasts across these two categories of sounds are often cited as pronunciation and listening perception problems for a variety of EFL learners, most from E. Asia. The language backgrounds most often associated with these problems are Japanese, Korean, Chinese and some languages of SE Asia (e.g., Thai but also Cantonese Chinese). Other language speakers have also expressed an interest in improving their pronunciation of English /r/ and /l/, including Russian and German EFL learners.


Perhaps the most well-known group to have a problem with the two categories of sounds is Japanese EFL learners. This could be because their native language background creates the most difficult problems to overcome, both in terms of listening perception a...


For Microsoft, Japan Collaboration Mutually Beneficial (Jun 12)
At best it looks like an exclusive academic club and a way for Microsoft Asia to recruit some top talent from Japan. However, about the institute, in 2009 MS released this PR:

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/news/features/japaneseacademics-100109.aspx

Japan Collaboration Mutually Beneficial
By Rob Knies
October 1, 2009 10:00 AM PT

excerpt:

When the Microsoft Institute for Japanese Academic Research Collaboration was founded in July 2005, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates left little doubt about his high hopes for the new effort.

“Japan is one of the most advanced countries in scientific research and engineering in the world,” Gates said at the time. “It has a talent pool that provides tremendous potential.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates announces Microsoft Research Asia's collaborative effort with Japanese academia, which debuted in July 2005.

“This platform will allow researchers in one of the world's leading economies to put their long tradition of technological deve...


Previously unpublished article from the JHEO archives: Microsoft partners with top Japanese universities (May 30)
This is a piece written in 2005 and never published (although parts of it were integrated into other articles, including freelance articles sold to THES).  It would be interesting to update this to see what ever developed from the IJARC initiative. Another development that needs updating is the so-called Asian OS (which was supposed to help Asia compete with the Microsoft monopoly in desktop and notebook OSes). A third thing that requires follow up is just where the TRON OS is at and is going. These all have to be updated with things like the following in mind: (1) Apple's resurgence, including in OS development, (2) Google's emergence as a key player in OSes, and (3) the presence of Linux OS in many aspects of networked and embedded computing. Other spin-off topics might include the importance of JAVA in embedded computing and the shift in personal computing from desktops and notebooks to all sort of mobile devices, including smart phones and tablets.    



Microsoft partners wit...


Partially romanized map of Japan (Mar 22)
This map courtesy of Kenn Sakurai at Facebook. Fukushima, the prefecture with the troubled reactors has been circled in red. The Kanto megalopolis is south of there. Major quake and tsunami damage starts in Chiba, on the coast and goes northward, taking in coastal, estuarine and even diluvial (up river) Ibaraki, Tochigi, Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate, Aomori, as well as coastal SE Hokkaido. Japan HEO is in Fukui, south of Niigata, on the Japan Sea side of Honshu (the other side of Honshu). Radioactivity is polluting the agriculture and waters of Fukushima and surrounding prefectures. It is also drifting south into the Kanto area.




Japan HEO statement about the earthquake-tsunami-nuclear disasters in Japan #2 (Mar 22)
Regardless of all the western media coverage, it is important to remember that the Tokyo/Kanto area was largely spared from earthquake or tsunami damage. The troubled nuclear reactors are in Fukushima Prefecture, well outside the Kanto area. However, it is these damaged nuclear reactors that are threatening to bring an entire country to the edge of collapse.

It seems to me, a non-expert, that they have at least two reactors (out of six reporting major problems after the quake and tsunami) in meltdown (uncontrolled fission) and undergoing 'dirty' fission processes. This means that dumping seawater on them isn't going to cool them (water could actually increase reaction of U-235 because it slows emitted neutrons and helps U-235 to capture them, causing more fission).

It seem that they are simply hoping that the containment underneath holds while they spray sea water on the cores and work to restore power to buildings and pump systems that are largely destroyed and inoperable.

That ...


Japan HEO statement about the earthquake-tsunami-nuclear disasters in Japan (Mar 22)
This was written one day after the quake (12 March 2011) and sent out to the Dogme ELT group at Yahoo Groups. I am sharing it with Japan HEO readers here. It looks like premonitions about the nuclear reactors are proving unfortunately correct, if understated:

It started with a very long, strong seaquake. It was strong enough in parts of
coastal Japan to cause quake damage. Minutes later the NE coast of Honshu was
hit with huge tsunami waves, which caused flooding. In many places.


Right now I'm watching horrifying images and reading horrifying reports of what
is going on at Fukushima nuclear power plant. They might have serious incidents
at THREE reactors, but one is approaching 'melt down' (a non-technical term for
loss of containment below ground level--they may have already lost containment
above ground). Back up coolant systems failed because diesel generators were
flooded with sea water (design flaw or human execution flaws).


In a way Japan got lucky yesterday because had t...


Japan universities rocked by cheating scandal (Mar 7)
But it's not quite what you would expect. It's not a case of students at the universities cheating on exams or term papers. Instead it's high-tech cheating at the institutions' entrance exams. The test taker allegedly took photos of test questions, posted them to a 'help' site run by Yahoo Japan, got answers and used them to complete the test. All under the supposedly watchful eye of invigilation.

I would argue, though, that the universities involved (e.g., Kyoto University) have no one but themselves to blame. They run their own exams in order to make lots of money because they accept applications from far more people than they could possibly admit as students. Lower-ranked universities scramble to get enough students to enroll while these elite universities (both public and private) profit from testing huge numbers and turning most of them away. And then they are too cheap to provide proper invigilation.


Here is a link to a Japan Times article, with excerpt following the link.
...


Troubling trend: fewer and fewer Japanese studying overseas (Jan 28)
Background: January 2011 brings a spate of online articles on Japan and higher education, Japan and English. One negative trend that has become apparent is that fewer and fewer Japanese university students are going abroad to study, especially to Anglophone countries, most especially the US. 

Many Japanese educators and policymakers, if asked, will say that English is the most important second or foreign language for their students to study because it is supposed to be the language of global communications and business. However, it is often hard to see that sort of agreement in terms of the actual workaday policies and curriculim here, where EFL will almost always take a 'back seat' to other concerns.

On the other hand, thanks in part to the influence of Confucius Institutes and cultural affinities between Japan and China due to historic links, more and more young Japanese are studying and staying in China. 

Also, even as more and more students come to Japan to study its langua...


Elite private Keio University drops National Center Test requirement for admissions (Jan 28)
Background: this decision must come as an unpleasant surprise to the National Center for University Entrance Examinations (NCUEE), since the trend had been for more and more private universities to use the unified entrance exam that the NCUEE administers. However, it's probably more lucrative for Keio to require only its in-house entrance exams. First, there will be no revenue sharing with other entities. Second, it might make it easier and cheaper for an ever larger number of high school seniors and cram school attendees to apply for Keio, even if only a small number will gain admission. Look at it the way a potential applicant might: if enrollment to Keio is the dream, it will allow them to concentrate without the distraction or expense of the National Center Test to worry about.    

The Yomiuri story is at the link below:

Keio Univ. to stop using standardized entrance exam

Key excerpt 1:


Starting next year, Keio University will no longer use the National Center Test, a uni...


Univ. groups to call for firms to delay start of recruitment in Japan (Jan 28)
Read the full story at the link below:

Univ. groups to call for firms to delay start of recruitment+


Students feel heat of joblessness (from The Japan Times Online) (Jan 28)
Here is a Japan Times article on the same topic--the awful employment outlook for university graduates in Japan.

Students feel heat of joblessness | The Japan Times Online


Record low 68.8% graduating university students receive job offers+ (Jan 28)
Some background to this story: Universities and their faculties, departments and programs fret a lot about this statistic. That is because young people who plan to attend university will flock to institutions and majors that can boast success in helping to get their students jobs when they graduate. Perhaps more students need to look closer at the stats the universities publish. For example, are their students really getting jobs that are relevant to their areas of study? This year looks to be another dismal year for job prospects, and Japanese companies seem to be getting used to making university students jump through all sorts of hoops in the recruitment process. Educators fear that recruitment is starting too early, way before the final term of the fourth or final year of study, and this is disrupting the learning and opportunities for educational experiences.


Read the article at the link below:


Record low 68.8% graduating university students receive job offers+


Japan's Ministry of Education launches/renews two programs to revive HE and internationalization (Jan 27)
Japan's Ministry of Education (MEXT) launches/renews two programs to revive HE and internationalization

Combined the projects are supposed to help revive and promote inter-university exchange between Japan's designated universities and key institutions overseas, most likely in the US. A key aspect is supposed to help fund 300,000 Japanese students to go abroad while bringing a matching 300,000 foreign students to Japan. While well over 140,000 foreign students come to Japan, Japan's number of students going abroad is well below 70,000 and continues to decline. 

The government's focus is on 13 elite universities (and remember the original plan had been to fund 30 such institutions) that had previously qualified for funding, so this appears to be more of a re-branding than anything.

Read more at the links:

Launching New Project for Promoting Universities’ Activity in Implementing Internationalization as well as exchange with Asia and the United StatesPromoting Universities' ...


An Unlikely Partnership Leads to a Science and Technology University in the Middle East (Jan 27)
Last year in June, the JPN HEO blog reported on the start up of an Egypt-Japan partnership for a University of Science and Technology.

Last fall it had an intake of 100.

This week the US-based and US-focused Chronicle of HE ran a piece on E-JUST in its international section:

http://chronicle.com/article/Unlikely-Partnership-Leads-to/126052/

brief excerpt follows link:

January 25, 2011
An Unlikely Partnership Leads to a Science and Technology University in the Middle East

By Ursula Lindsey

New Borg El Arab, Egypt

The Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology is still little more than a few buildings on the edge of a quiet industrial town in the Egyptian desert. Yet when about 100 graduate students started courses here this past fall, it was the beginning of an unprecedented partnership between Egypt and Japan.